Japan Could Begin Commercial 8K Broadcasting in 2016

"Super-Hi Vision" will make today's full-HD look like standard definition.

According to the Japan Daily Press, the country's national broadcast service, NHK, could commence commercial 8K broadcasting by 2016.

The NHK calls this ultra-high-definition format "Super Hi-Vision." Its massive pixel count of 7,680 by 4,320 is four times that of 4K, and 16 times sharper than the full-HD common today. 4K just hit the consumer market last year, which means NHK is very far ahead of the game.

In fact, the original plan was for NHK to broadcast 8K by 2020—today's announcement simply bumps plans up by a couple of years. The Japanese broadcaster already trialled Super Hi-Vision in London during the 2012 Summer Olympics, but widespread adoption is an altogether more complicated matter.

Individual TV stations must be able and willing to update cameras to produce native 8K content, for instance, and transmitting the high-bandwidth signals will pose challenges to the existing cable infrastructure.

Regardless, viewers everywhere have plenty of reasons to root for adoption of UHD transmission. Though no one likes having to buy a new TV, the fact is that 8K and 4K resolutions make images far sharper and crisper than ever before. That tends to convey a more lifelike, almost three-dimensional effect—a real sense of "being there." And isn't that the whole point of TV?

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